Comedy Special premiers this Saturday, April 11th, 11 PM on Comedy Central

Producing and distributing Philly comedian Keith Robinson’s special for Comedy Central wasn’t the only endeavor that Kevin Hart has planned in terms of producing new comedy specials. Kev’s touring crew, The Plastic Cup Boyz, have been opening for Kev ever since he reached his mega-status as an acclaimed comedian. It would only make sense that the next special he produces be his own team, who also come from Philly.

Will “Spank” Horton, Na’im Lynn, and Joey Wells are seriously funny guys and rank at the top tier of Philly’s Funniest. Those lucky enough to see these guys in the early days of the Laff House can vouch that they’ve come a long way from those Thursday night shows to playing sold out arenas.

For those of you who don’t know, comedian Chris Cotton is not only the co-host of the Artie Lange podcast (and our impromptu IAFIP Podcast), but also the producer of the Comedy For A Cure benefit show that happens once a year in Philly. Every year, Chris puts together a show where the proceeds go towards efforts to support Multiple Sclerosis research. This year is no different in that Chris is putting together another show at Helium comedy club with none other than his podcast co-host and all-around great comedian Artie Lange and the rest of the Artie Lange podcast crew. The show will have none other than H. Foley as the host as well as some other supporting spots such as Philly comedy legend and my personal favorite, TuRae Gordon. This line-up is something that shouldn’t be missed so make sure to grab your tickets as soon as possible!!

The Comedy For A Cure show is Saturday, April 11th at Helium comedy club, located at 2031 Sansom St.

Recently, news about an official documentary about the late Patrice O’Neal made its way around the internet and got everyone, including myself, excited to hear more about it. If you remember a post from a few years ago, I made an exception on my “Philly Only” rule for the site and posted anarticle about my thoughts on Patrice’s untimely death.

Patrice O’Neal is by far one of my favorite comedians of all time. He optimized the notion of head-on-no-bullshit comedy style that too many comedians today have strayed from.

So that’s why I was ecstatic when I found that the rumored documentary about Patrice has started a crowdfunding page on Indiegogo. Patrice’s long time partner Von Decarlo has even taken on the role of producer for the project and is part of the project’s outreach campaign. I couldn’t think of anyone better than her to help tell the story of one of comedy’s greatest performers.

I’d usually put my favorite clip of the comedian featured in the article at this point, but I’m going to change it up a little and post something I think is a perfect example of Patrice’s genius point of view on a ton of topics. Here’s an interview he did with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast.

If you remember our post a few months ago, we were promoting the taping of Philly comedy legend Keith Robinson’s new special, Back of the Bus Funny. At the time of the taping, the particular network that would be airing the special wasn’t announced, but Kevin Hart had just recently posted a tweet regarding it’s air date and channel:

Kevin Hart produced Keith Robinson’s new special, which will air this Saturday at 11 pm EST on Comedy Central

Keith Robinson is by far one of Philadelphia’s most prominent and successful comedians and is a known mentor to an endless amount of comedians new and experienced. Having taken Kevin under his wing in the beginning of his comedy career, it only makes sense that Kevin would pay it forward and produce Keith’s special, being the superstar that he is.

Check out a clip from Keith’s new special below:

Keith Robinson’s new special Back of the Bus Funny will air at 11 PM EST on Comedy Central.

We’re well through the beginning of the series premier, but for those of you who don’t know, Philly Native and our good friend Derek Gaines is starring in a hilarious new game show on MTV called Broke Ass Game Show with his co-host David Magidoff as they stroll the city streets to find unsuspecting participants to perform shameless antics all for a few bucks and some well deserved screen time.

Derek Gaines is one of the funniest guys we know so seeing him as a comedian who got his bearings in Philly to making the entire country laugh on TV is another testament to Philadelphia’s comedy scene. But don’t take my word for it, check out this preview of the show:

It’s been just over a year since the Laff House comedy club, a landmark in our comedy scene, had shut down due to a variety of reasons we won’t go into. Since then, the Philadelphia comedy scene had changed course in a number of ways, some better than others.

For instance, a lot of the Laff House’s regularly booked comedians became more determined to keep their booking schedules as full as possible, this lead to some of the now very popular weekly and monthly comedy shows that span through way more parts of the city such as Josh Kosh’s Funny Money show at the Legendary Dobb’s in South street (on Tuesdays), and, of course, TuRae’s Soul Comedy show at Warmdaddy’s off Columbus Avenue (every Wednesday). These are only some of the few comedy spots that are helping the Philly comedy scene grow that were indirectly spawned by the Laff House’s closing last July.

I recently received an email from Rod Millwood, the owner of the Laff House, informing me that the Laff House comedy club will be having it’s grand opening comedy show on September 6, at Harrah’s Casino in Chester, PA at 8 PM.

The grand opening show will consist of headliners that the Laff House was most known for booking such as A.G. White, Mike Troy, and Reginald “Brother Man” Ballard. According to Millwood, the club also plans on rebooting the Laff House’s annual Philadlephia comedy festival shortly after.

Time will tell how this new location will work in terms of helping Philly Comedy grow, but at the very least, the prospect of being able to see some of my favorite comedians on a Laff House stage again is extremely exciting to hear.

We will be posting more information on the Laff House’s re-opening as it comes.

For those of you who aren’t as crazy about useless Philly entertainment facts as I am, Tina Fey was an Upper Darby girl before she moved on to becoming SNL’s first female head writer, 30 Rock’s creator and star, and an award-winning actress and screenwriter. In fact, she wrote extensively about her earlier days in Philly in her best-selling book, Bossy Pants.

Fortunately fans of Tina’s amazing writing will be able to buy tickets to an event at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center that she will be attending. The event is to raise money for the center’s new sound system, so being an UDPAC alumni herself, Tina will be screening her movie that she wrote and co-starred in, Mean Girls, for it’s tenth anniversary, as well as conduct a Q&A after the showing. The event will take place on Saturday, August 16th at 7:30 PM

I remember meeting Tina when she attended Conan O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television” tour and asked her about her early days in Philadelphia. I’ll Never forget her response:

“Get the fuck out of my dressing room, you maniac!”

To be able to to attend and speak with Tina Fey is an amazing opportunity for a TV writing and Tina Fey fan like myself, and telling by how fast the tickets are going, I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one who thinks so too.